What we only suspected in The Eleventh Hour has come more to the fore in The Beast Below, namely that the first story of the season had a deliberately hybrid-ized tone to it, a mix of RTD’s style and the thoughts truer to Moffat’s own personal style, more of which we’ll no doubt be seeing in subsequent weeks.
The Beast Below shows the way forward much more clearly, and yet had plenty of earmarks of some ‘classic’ stories as well. I picked up threads from The Happiness Patrol, The Sontaran Experiment, Tooth and Claw, and The Idiot’s Lantern (the author of which we’ll be seeing next week).
Another story where children form the crux of the story, if somewhat obliquely here. This is a story centrally about the very young and the very old, and it took someone who is both in a sense, Amy, to figure to out. We were moved at Amy’s redemption in the eyes of the Doctor (although it sure seemed his dismissal of her was far too abrupt to begin with).
Next week it’s the Daleks (again) but for now images and caps for The Beast Below are now online.
